Thad Cochran

William Thad Cochran (7 December 1937-) was a US Senator from Mississippi from 27 December 1978 with Roger Wicker, succeeding James Eastland.

Biography
William Thad Cochran was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi on 7 December 1937, and he majored in psychology and minored in political science when he graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1959. From 1959 to 1961, he served in the US Navy, and he received his juris doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1965. During the late 1960s, Cochran left the US Democratic Party and joined the US Republican Party, supervising Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign in Mississippi. In 1973, he succeeded Sonny Montgomery as a member of the US House of Representatives, representing the 4th congressional district until 1978, when Jon Hinson succeeded him. Cochran was elected to the Senate in 1978 to fill the vacancy left by Roger Wicker. In 2005, Cochran voted against restrictions on the application of torture to Guantanamo Bay prisoners; in 2006, he won $29,000,000,000 in relief money for the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, and he also voted to lift restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research that same year. Cochran also led opposition to President Barack Obama's health care reforms during the 2010s.